Emergency plans require full cooperation

The headline on Thursday's edition read "Emergency plans revised". Next to the story was a photograph of McCook's police chief, standing by a Blackhawk helicopter while a box of "equipment" was unloaded for National Guardsmen to use in airport security.

National Guardsmen, guarding McCook Municipal Airport -- does there remain any doubt that it's time to revise, and rethink a lot of plans?

The last time Red Willow County's overall emergency plan was updated, in 1992, the emphasis was on nuclear emergencies, clearly a hangover from the Cold War years.

Any emergency planning must still include nuclear emergencies, but clearly, the 21st century ushered in a new world. And, it's a real world that emergency planners must deal with as they watch and read news coverage of the cleanup in New York and Washington and the U.S. military response.

While we hope and pray terrorism never directly reaches the Golden Plains, it easily could. Red Willow County emergency crews will almost certainly have to deal with other issues covered in the new emergency plan -- tornadoes, winter storms and hazardous materials spills.

As events in the East have demonstrated, civic emergencies will require sacrifices and a full-bore coordinated effort by everyone involved.